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The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #4)

by Robert A. Caro

4.54 of 5 stars 4.54 · rating details · 4,221 ratings · 711 reviews

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZE

NAMED BYTHE NEW YORK TIMESONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Economist * Time *Newsweek * Foreign Policy * Business Week * The Week * The Christian Science Monitor *Newsday

By the t...more WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZE

NAMED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Economist * Time * Newsweek * Foreign Policy * Business Week * The Week * The Christian Science Monitor *Newsday

By the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Power Broker.

Book Four of Robert A. Caro’s monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson displays all the narrative energy and illuminating insight that led the Times of London to acclaim it as “one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece.”

The Passage of Power follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career—1958 to1964. It is a time that would see him trade the extraordinary power he had created for himself as Senate Majority Leader for what became the wretched powerlessness of a Vice President in an administration that disdained and distrusted him. Yet it was, as well, the time in which the presidency, the goal he had always pursued, would be thrust upon him in the moment it took an assassin’s bullet to reach its mark.

By 1958, as Johnson began to maneuver for the presidency, he was known as one of the most brilliant politicians of his time, the greatest Senate Leader in our history. But the 1960 nomination would go to the young senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. Caro gives us an unparalleled account of the machinations behind both the nomination and Kennedy’s decision to offer Johnson the vice presidency, revealing the extent of Robert Kennedy’s efforts to force Johnson off the ticket. With the consummate skill of a master storyteller, he exposes the savage animosity between Johnson and Kennedy’s younger brother, portraying one of America’s great political feuds. Yet Robert Kennedy’s overt contempt for Johnson was only part of the burden of humiliation and isolation he bore as Vice President. With a singular understanding of Johnson’s heart and mind, Caro describes what it was like for this mighty politician to find himself altogether powerless in a world in which power is the crucial commodity.

For the first time, in Caro’s breathtakingly vivid narrative, we see the Kennedy assassination through Lyndon Johnson’s eyes. We watch Johnson step into the presidency, inheriting a staff fiercely loyal to his slain predecessor; a Congress determined to retain its power over the executive branch; and a nation in shock and mourning. We see how within weeks—grasping the reins of the presidency with supreme mastery—he propels through Congress essential legislation that at the time of Kennedy’s death seemed hopelessly logjammed and seizes on a dormant Kennedy program to create the revolutionary War on Poverty. Caro makes clear how the political genius with which Johnson had ruled the Senate now enabled him to make the presidency wholly his own. This was without doubt Johnson’s finest hour, before his aspirations and accomplishments were overshadowed and eroded by the trap of Vietnam.

In its exploration of this pivotal period in Johnson’s life—and in the life of the nation—The Passage of Power is not only the story of how he surmounted unprecedented obstacles in order to fulfill the highest purpose of the presidency but is, as well, a revelation of both the pragmatic potential in the presidency and what can be accomplished when the chief executive has the vision and determination to move beyond the pragmatic and initiate programs designed to transform a nation. It is an epic story told with a depth of detail possible only through the peerless research that forms the foundation of Robert Caro’s work, confirming Nicholas von Hoffman’s verdict that “Caro has changed the art of political biography.”(less)

Hardcover, 712 pages

Published May 1st 2012 by Knopf Publishing Group (first published January 1st 2012)

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May 25, 2012 A.J. Howard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, finished-in-2012, six-stars, political-history

Since the summer 2005, when I read the previous three volumes of Caro's majestic Years of Lyndon Johnson series, I have periodically checked the internet for updates on the final volume's release. When I saw that it was available for pre-order on Amazon I loudly whooped. I kinda hope that bookstores do a midnight release so I can dress up like Sam Rayburn and stay up reading all night. I may be crazy, but doesn't that cover look pretty sexy? Yes, my name is A.J., and I'm am fully aware that I'm...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson might be the great historical project of our time. These days, publishers seem to prefer everything to be contained in one volume. Thus, even topics as grand as the Second World War get crammed into a single book. But Robert Caro cannot be contained between two covers. His legendary expansiveness requires the clearing of entire forests. His scope and breadth and novelistic detail hearken back to Gibbon, Sandburg or Foote.

The Passage of Power is the four...more

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May 21, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: presidents, top-10-2012

No one alive at the time will ever forget where they were and how they heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot. I was in a grade school classroom when Sister Clemenza burst into the room, her eyes bulging with the news. Nothing could take me away from the television in the days that followed, every detail etching itself: from Cronkite choking back the sorrow at the official announcement; to Oswald, his mouth forming an "O"; to a young son's salute.

It wasn't just ten-year olds who were star-stru...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

Lyndon Johnson got to me in the few years between gaining the presidency in Dallas and the escalation of horror in Vietnam. His towering presence leaned over me, inches from my soul, and his bellowing voice called me to the immortal words, "We Shall Overcome." Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he raised my awareness of each child living in poverty. He got me with his passion for equal education, voting rights for minorities, and his War on Poverty.

Only a few years would pass until I saw the othe...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Hadrian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american, biography-memoir, nonfiction, politics-and-foreign-policy

It has been twelve years since the last volume was released, and thirty since the first. The next should hopefully come out in two or three years, says an article. Let's hope.

This book covers the era from 1959 to 1964, the slim few years between Johnson's acceptance of the Vice Presidency to the beginning of 1964, just over a month after the events of 11/22. Power passes from him and to him in nearly equal spans. The Senate Giveth and Kennedy Taketh Away.

Johnson was a man accustomed to, and obse...more

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Jul 15, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

So I started this ages ago, but I must not have been that into it at the time because I put it down in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and didn't pick it up again for an entire year. The problem I'd been having was the one I'd had with other books in the series, which is that while I adore Robert Caro's work and am enthralled by all his descriptions of the intricate and shocking machinations of government, I find Lyndon Baines Johnson, as a person, extraordinarily dull. So for the first b...more So I started this ages ago, but I must not have been that into it at the time because I put it down in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and didn't pick it up again for an entire year. The problem I'd been having was the one I'd had with other books in the series, which is that while I adore Robert Caro's work and am enthralled by all his descriptions of the intricate and shocking machinations of government, I find Lyndon Baines Johnson, as a person, extraordinarily dull. So for the first big chunk of this book I'd often wake with a start to find I'd dozed off with drool all over my sweater and had only been roused again to consciousness by the appearance of one or another glamorous Kennedy.

This was pretty much the same problem LBJ had throughout his agonizingly demeaning vice presidency, so it makes sense that it'd be replicated here. Fortunately -- well, fortunate for the bored reader, anyway -- the narrative picks up a bit on November 22, 1963 when (spoiler alert!) Johnson's boss makes a dramatic exit and our plucky understudy is thrust onto stage in the starring role for which he's been yearning all his days.

This part of the story is just like that magic makeover moment in all those eighties movies we loved as girls, where the weird nerdy wallflower takes off her glasses and straightens her hair and is outfitted by some fairy-godmother-like figure in a jaunty montage set to the decade's most fabulously craptastic catchy pop song. Johnson's ascension to the presidency is his time to shine, and shine shine shine shine he certainly does!

Caro claims he found no evidence that Johnson was behind JFK's assassination, but if LBJ didn't directly cause JFK's death it's certainly not from lack of hoping (I noticed Caro did not say he'd ruled out a role in RFK's death; guess I'll have to wait for the next one to hear more about that). The pre-assassination dynamics between the Kennedys and Johnson might seem Shakespearian to a well-read and educated person, but my reference point for them really was movies about cruel teenage girls. Basically the Kennedys are the Heathers or are straight out of Mean Girls, and poor LBJ's the awkward dork they tease mercilessly up until the day that the tables turn and he gets to steal their boyfriend/humiliate them in the cafeteria/watch them choke to death on a glass of Drano. I am too young and too stupid to know anything about Bobby Kennedy beyond how terrific my mother thought he was, and the descriptions of his vicious feud with LBJ trumps any gossip magazine or soap opera catfight by a million. Boy, those guys did NOT like each other! Also, I never had any idea before I read this how much being the vice president sucks. I mean, I think I myself might actually enjoy it, since I am very lazy and fear responsibility, unless something terrible happened to the president and then I and everyone else would truly be screwed.

As usual, I digress. Also as usual, Caro is at his best in describing what should be skull-numbingly boring political processes. I, like many other Americans, have a pathetically limited understanding of how politics and the government work, and Caro not only helps make up for all the civics classes I somehow never took but also does a fantastic job of narrating it like it's gripping bloodsport. This stuff is just so great! As I said before, I find LBJ very dull as a person, but when he's doing what he's great at -- brilliant and ruthless political maneuvering -- I just can't get enough. Caro's detailed explanations of how LBJ rammed his budget and civil rights legislation through by masterfully making Congress his bitch is so thrilling that I could read about it for hundreds and hundreds of pages... and oh hey, whadaya know, I just did!

If you haven't read all the hundreds of pages worth of LBJ books that Caro wrote before this one, don't worry; he will recap everything important that you missed, often multiple times and usually while quoting himself, which is certainly his prerogative because he's ROBERT FUCKING CARO. Man I love how GOOD these books are in exactly the same way that I love reading about how good LBJ was at getting bills through Congress. It makes me feel so much better about human beings, that everything and everyone is not just completely mediocre. Give me profoundly, horribly, chillingly flawed any day over just sorta okay, at least when it comes to books... maybe not presidents, but definitely biographies' subjects and authors. Not that Caro is flawed. He is perfect, if you like this kind of thing, as I do. For I value few things as much as a writer whose qualities include the rare ability to pierce through the dark clouds of my ignorance and regale me with the history about which I have understood so little, beginning all those many years ago in that liberal California university town where I grew up, a fierce desire for knowledge burning in my young breast as I determined to learn all the facts of history my absent father neglected to provide.

I'm very excited for the next volume so that I can find out what happens next to our hero. So far it seems like despite his demonstrated capacity for terrible mistakes, unbelievable hubris, appalling immorality and deceit and perhaps even evil, LBJ might make a pretty decent president! I have high hopes based on his determination to develop social programs and advance civil rights, though I am a bit worried about his capacity for making important foreign policy decisions. Nothing major yet, just stuff like political instability in some southeast Asian country that doesn't sound like such a big deal but I'm not sure how he'll handle that sort of thing. I'm sure it'll be fine. But until the next volume comes out, I will live in suspense!(less)

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Apr 21, 2013 M rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have read the first three books in this series and am looking forward to this one. If it is anything like the first books, it should be LONG and informative about the darker side of LBJ. Could anyone be as power hungry as he? I will most likely purchase this book as I have purchase the first three by Caro and I collect presidential biographies.

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Mar 29, 2012 Amanda Linehan marked it as to-read

Excerpt from this book on the Kennedy assassination through Johnson's eyes appeared in this week's New Yorker -- could NOT put it down.

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May 18, 2012 Frank Stein rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book, which takes Lyndon Johnson from the campaign of 1960, through his Vice Presidential years, and up to the first few months of his presidency, deserves a place among Caro's best works.

There are a few things that are infuriating in this book. Again and again the reader is treated to reminders that Johnson was a maniacal worker, and quotes like "He didn't want to be like Daddy." These are not only repeated ad nausem in this book, but were also repeated ad nausem in the three previous John...more
This book, which takes Lyndon Johnson from the campaign of 1960, through his Vice Presidential years, and up to the first few months of his presidency, deserves a place among Caro's best works.

There are a few things that are infuriating in this book. Again and again the reader is treated to reminders that Johnson was a maniacal worker, and quotes like "He didn't want to be like Daddy." These are not only repeated ad nausem in this book, but were also repeated ad nausem in the three previous Johnson books of the series, and if anything Caro has been getting even MORE repetitive with these lines as the series goes on. It baffles me why his editor hasn't simply excised them from more than a few paragraphs, but almost every scene change seems to bring them back.

That being said, at a certain point one can ignore their invocation. They function as something akin to Homer's reiteration of the "wine-dark sea" or some such. They merely serve to allow the tale teller to catch his breath before diving into another story. The work itself remains astounding and unparalleled. There are simply no other writers or historians who succeed in placing you right there in the midst of the action so well, and make the reader feel as if they are witnessing history in the making. Again and again Caro's numberless interviews with every important or unimportant participant in a scene pay off with telling details and rich moments.

The simple fact is after each of these books you feel like you understand power and politics in America in an entirely new light, and this new light makes all of the minutiae of political process seem uncommonly exciting. It helps that for the first time, perhaps, in this series, Caro has some topics with truly grand historical reach. His discussions of the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Tax Cut are unrivalled in his work, or perhaps any other, for drama and suspense.

Other little details that have escaped all previous biographers are equally mesmerizing. Caro himself said he could hardly believe them when he was writing them. Consider the private telephone line Johnson insisted on installing in his bedroom directly to the bedroom of the controller of his "blind" financial trust in Texas, so he, the President of the United States, could secretly discuss his investments on an almost nightly basis. Or the fact that Johnson, abused by the Kennedy team (they called him "Uncle Cornpone," among harsher insults, often just within his earshot), told one of his aides that being Vice President was the equivalent of being a "cut dog."

Again, its a magisterial piece of work, and once again after finishing, I can't help but wait for the supposedly final volume. Frankly, I think more than ever that its all for the best if he decides to split THAT one up into two or more volumes. The more the merrier. (less)

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Dec 16, 2012 Patrick Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-2012

Robert Caro began researching this series of books in 1976, the year I was born. The scope and ambition of these books do more than cast long shadows, they fill the sky. Their success rests on several factors, including exhaustive research, but ultimately, they are so impressive primarily because their author is as good a storyteller as any novelist working today.

Caro is the unrivaled master of weaving the minutia into a grand tapestry. He never fails to set the historical stage for each moment...more Robert Caro began researching this series of books in 1976, the year I was born. The scope and ambition of these books do more than cast long shadows, they fill the sky. Their success rests on several factors, including exhaustive research, but ultimately, they are so impressive primarily because their author is as good a storyteller as any novelist working today.

Caro is the unrivaled master of weaving the minutia into a grand tapestry. He never fails to set the historical stage for each moment of Johnson's career, and that's never more important than it is in the year's covered in this book -- 1960 to 1964 -- the years he lost to John F. Kennedy in the Democratic primary, became his running mate in the 1960 general election, and then assumed power upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963. It's at that moment, the moment of the assassination, that this book truly hits its stride.

Johnson took over under unprecedented circumstances, in more ways than one, and Caro masterfully lays that out for the reader. Not only was he present at the time of Kennedy's death, Kennedy was murdered in his home state. At the time of the assassination, rumors were flying that Johnson -- loathed by Robert Kennedy and never trusted or admired by most Kennedy staffers -- was to be dropped from the ticket in 1964. Additionally, the world was already living in a state of constant fear of nuclear war, a war that had been narrowly averted just a year prior during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Johnson had to reassure not only the US but the world that he was a competent leader. To do so, he had to convince men who had never liked him, who had called him "Rufus Cornpone" behind his back, to work for him as they had for Kennedy. He had to do all of this while still being respectful of the Kennedy family and the dead president's legacy. And he had to immediately start thinking of the looming election, in which Robert Kennedy might be waiting to take the nomination from him and assume his brother's place atop the government.

That Johnson was able to do all of these things was a testament to his intelligence and his will. Caro gives this period of Johnson's life room to breathe on the page, spending some 150+ pages on about two months, from late November 1963 to February 1964, when Johnson finally brought the Civil Rights Bill that would become the most positive part of his legacy, to the Senate floor.

Balancing the need to delve into details -- who was on Air Force One that night in Dallas, who did Johnson first call to discuss the Oath of the Office, who were the congressman in the rules committee that threatened to destroy the Civil Rights Bill -- with the desire to properly frame the moment is what makes this yet another master work from Robert A. Caro. To step back and to view the entire series--more than 3,000 pages so far--is breathtaking. (less)

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May 08, 2012 George Anders rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lyndon Johnson gets older in this fourth installment of Robert Caro's epic presidential biography and so too -- unfortunately -- does the author. The early chapters are masterful. But Caro's story-telling and analysis begins to sputter in rather worrisome ways as the book builds to its dual climax of the Kennedy assassination and Johnson's rapid command of the presidency. I missed the firm command of his material that Caro showed in his earlier books. The master is 76 years old now, and for all...more Lyndon Johnson gets older in this fourth installment of Robert Caro's epic presidential biography and so too -- unfortunately -- does the author. The early chapters are masterful. But Caro's story-telling and analysis begins to sputter in rather worrisome ways as the book builds to its dual climax of the Kennedy assassination and Johnson's rapid command of the presidency. I missed the firm command of his material that Caro showed in his earlier books. The master is 76 years old now, and for all his vigor, he's beginning to miss some steps.

When Caro is at full strength, his narration is defined by three great virtues.

- A great eye for the interplay of noble/base motivations within his subjects. Caro constantly shines a light on WHY events happened, not just what happened. He does this with exquisite sensitivity to the private ambitions and inadequacies that shape public figures' lives. LBJ's turbulent life provides Caro with a great deal to work with, and Caro makes the most of it.

- Relentless reporting. Caro is famous for tracking down ALL the players and witnesses at each juncture. He's just as good at exploring the mass of documents, both public and hidden, that reveal history as it happened, not just as people remember it.

- Generally fine judgment about how to fit all the pieces together. Caro often spends a dozen pages on events that may be only a paragraph in someone else's book, but most of the time, his extra details and insights make the longer ride well worth it.

This new book opens with Caro at his best. The opening chapters do a fine job of showing Johnson, at the height of his powers in the Senate, sabotaging his own career, based on a miscalculation of how the 1960 presidential nomination battle would play out. We learn how Johnson in 1959 believed that the Democratic primaries would decide nothing, letting him stay above the fray and eventually being anointed at the convention as the Democrats' presidential candidate in 1960. We also get glimpses of LBJ's own dread of failing as a presidential candidate. The upshot: Johnson did very little to mount a serious campaign on his own, only to realize with horror that Kennedy was lapping him in the primaries, preparing to win the Democrats' nomination on the first ballot. Belatedly, LBJ jumped into the race, too late to end up with anything more than the vice presidency.

Caro writes very deftly about John F. Kennedy's allure and Johnson's private anguish in taking stock of his younger rival. Then comes a series of blistering scenes where LBJ and Robert Kennedy essentially declare war on each other. Telling this as Caro does is brave stuff. Other historians, more sympathetic to the Kennedy family, have airbrushed out details for a long time or portrayed Johnson as the one to blame for each misstep. Caro shows how dysfunctional everything was on both sides; his account rings true. Such tensions define the fallow years of Johnson's vice presidency, where he is an ambitious man with nothing worthy to do.

Then comes the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath. Here Caro's account is spellbinding but incomplete. He opts for a classic tick-tock narrative, with minute by minute details, all of which are very fascinating -- and all of which portray Johnson sympathetically. But there have been many, many accounts of those four days, and they don't all track the bland assurances of the Warren Commission report. Caro is weirdly passive anytime he gets to any of the famous points of controversy. All he offers in the way of analysis is a one-liner that he found no evidence Johnson was involved in a conspiracy. That's it. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but part of the reason for reading a book like this is to know, in detail, what the non-crazy conspiracy theorists think they've found, and why an expert like Caro believes that each of these supposed clues is irrelevant or bogus.

And then, in the final section, as Caro salutes Johnson's genuinely remarkable skills in getting landmark legislation through Congress, the narrative turns outright flabby. Caro repeatedly flashes back to the same earlier anecdotes for context -- some of them making triple and quadruple appearances within the span of 50 pages. A little bit of linkage is good. But this gets outright embarrassing. He repeatedly quotes his earlier books, each time via the awkward locution "as this author has written." What should have been a summation instead becomes a labored series of codas that don't close: a mechanical rehash that keeps cycling through the same points.

Still, Caro on an off day is better than 95% of biographers. Savor the best parts of the book. Don't be afraid to skim the slow sections. Hope that Caro and his editors can muster one more book to cover the rest of Johnson's presidency.

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Sep 11, 2014 Nickolette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, contemporary, american-presidents

The last episode of season one of House of Cards ends with Francis J. Underwood (FU) sitting at his desk in his cabinet conspiring with the audience in the style of Richard III, and on the table there is a book lying. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV by Robert A. Caro. For someone watching the show that is familiar with Lyndon Johnson’s bio, the parallels between him and the protagonist in House of Cards, played by Kevin Spacey, are obvious. Both FU and LBJ are savvy p...more The last episode of season one of House of Cards ends with Francis J. Underwood (FU) sitting at his desk in his cabinet conspiring with the audience in the style of Richard III, and on the table there is a book lying. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV by Robert A. Caro. For someone watching the show that is familiar with Lyndon Johnson’s bio, the parallels between him and the protagonist in House of Cards, played by Kevin Spacey, are obvious. Both FU and LBJ are savvy politicians and master strategist; both are obsessed with power, skilled at manipulation and ruthless in their approach (e.g. the infamous "Johnson treatment"); both men are aiming at the highest office in America and arguably – the world; both unbelievably smart and combinative, but most importantly – capable of passing bills through Congress.

The season of House of Cards ends in the tense moment where, after a series of hard scheming and morally (and legally) reproachful actions on behalf of FU, he is on the verge of becoming vice president. That is if an article exposing those actions doesn't come out first. In comparison, a sizable part of Passage of Power is dedicated to a piece of investigative journalism about LBJ’s money that was on its way to be published if it wasn't for the sudden assassination of Jack F. Kennedy that led to LBJ becoming the new president. Moreover, weeks after ascending to the presidency, he cleared his way from critical journalists in his typical manner - concealed transactions, blackmail, bulling.

Whether the book is suggestive of how the story in House of Cards would develop, we’ll have to wait and see.

As the show is gripping, provoking and revealing more than some would like to admit, so is the book. The Passage of Power is written with such immediacy, with so much skill, that one gets so involved and impatient regardless of their general familiarity with the events and their outcome. Gosh, I think to myself, here is another reason why I love this country. I mean the Anglo-Saxon tradition of writing about history in a fashion that compelling and humane.

http://slpssm.blogspot.com/2013/10/th...(less)

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May 27, 2012 Erik Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is impossible to say anything about this book, or this multi-volume biography, that hasn't already been glowingly said, and I do think that anyone who wants to know anything about politics needs to immerse herself in these books. So let me just say this about this particular volume: I was utterly moved in a gut-wrenching/inspiriational way when JFK had been shot, and LBJ was sequested in a hospital room, exchanging knowing glances with Bird, glances in which the two spoke volumes not despite...more

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Jun 30, 2013 Pat rated it 5 of 5 stars

This volume delves in to the years of 1960-1963 which covers the years of Johnson's vice presidency and the assassination of President Kennedy. A nation in mourning and seemingly oblivious to their new president during those first days of office. Those days were critical for the country. Johnson was masterful at making all the right decisions for a successful succession. Days that have been underrated by historians.

I would recommend this book highly for those who want to learn more about the tr...more This volume delves in to the years of 1960-1963 which covers the years of Johnson's vice presidency and the assassination of President Kennedy. A nation in mourning and seemingly oblivious to their new president during those first days of office. Those days were critical for the country. Johnson was masterful at making all the right decisions for a successful succession. Days that have been underrated by historians.

I would recommend this book highly for those who want to learn more about the transition of Johnson from a powerless Vice President to taking control of the White House upon hearing the words "he is gone".

The relationship between Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy and Johnson is detailed in this book. The blood feud between Bobby and Johnson is fascinating. That hatred continued til the day Bobby was assassinated in 1968.

"Even the acclaim that had greeted his own performance after the assassination was soured for him by the "snot-nosed little runt," Johnson said in a conversation. "Every day as soon as I opened the papers or turned on the television, there was something about Bobby Kennedy ....Somehow or other it didn't seem fair. Id given three years of loyal service to Jack Kennedy. During all that time I'd willingly stayed in the background; I knew that it was his presidency, not mine....And then Kennedy was killed and ...I became the President. But none of this seemed to register with Bobby Kennedy, who acted like he was the custodian of the Kennedy dream, some kind of rightful heir to the throne. It just didn't seem fair..." Bobby's opinion..." Our President was a gentlemen and a human being...This man is not...He's mean, bitter, vicious---an animal in many ways."

"The tone was to get meaner. I'm just like a fox," Lyndon Johnson once boasted. "I can see the jugular in any man and go for it, but I always keep myself in rein. I keep myself on a leash, just like you would any animal." My impression of Johnson was that he seldom ever kept himself on a leash. He was a man of many contradictions; which makes for a great study. This man who was responsible for some of the most progressive bills became law.. "The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Medicare and Medicaid; Head Start; Model Cities. Government's hand to help people caught in the "tentacles of circumstance."

All these victories would be overshadowed by the Vietnam War. The office of President and how it was revered and respected would forever be changed.

I love the last paragraphs on the final page of this book. I look forward to reading the next volume in this series of work.
"The story of the presidency of Lyndon Johnson will be different in tone from the story of the transition in part because the elements of his personality absent during the transition were shortly to reappear. Yet for a period of time, a brief but crucial moment in history, he had held these elements in check, had overcome them, had, in a way, conquered himself. And by doing so, by overcoming forces within him that were very difficult to overcome, he not only had held the country steady during a difficult time but had set it on a new course, a course toward social justice. In the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson, this period stands out as different from the rest, as perhaps that life's finest moment, as a moment not only masterful but, in its way, heroic.
If he had held in check these forces within him, had conquered himself for a while, he wasn't going to be able to do it for very long.
But he had done it long enough.

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Jul 06, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Robert Caro's Masterful Portrait of Lyndon Johnson's Early Days as President

There are very few figures in history worthy of multi-volume biographies, much less one that runs to five books, the first four of which alone total nearly 3,600 pages. However, Robert Caro proves conclusively that his subject, President Lyndon Johnson, is fully deserving of the attention. One of the towering figures of the 20th Century, Johnson’s extraordinarily complex personality and the indelible imprint he left on A...more Robert Caro's Masterful Portrait of Lyndon Johnson's Early Days as President

There are very few figures in history worthy of multi-volume biographies, much less one that runs to five books, the first four of which alone total nearly 3,600 pages. However, Robert Caro proves conclusively that his subject, President Lyndon Johnson, is fully deserving of the attention. One of the towering figures of the 20th Century, Johnson’s extraordinarily complex personality and the indelible imprint he left on American history literally require years of intensive research and thousands of pages to unravel.

It may be difficult for one who didn’t experience the 1960s as an adult to appreciate the consequential impact of Johnson’s career, both for good and for bad.

Before his ascension to the leadership of the U.S. Senate in 1953 — just five years after his first election to the body, and still in his first term – the Senate was effectively dysfunctional from the perspective of anyone who felt that action was needed to solve the country’s most pressing social and economic problems. During Johnson’s six years as Majority Leader (1955-61), his unrivaled legislative and political skills permitted him to change that dramatically, passing the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction nearly a century earlier and guiding the legislative process as smoothly as could ever be expected of a two-century-old institution hobbled by obscure rules designed to forestall any action.

Later, as President (1963-69), Johnson achieved victories almost universally deemed impossible when he acceded to the office upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy: “his great personal victory in the 1964 election, and his great victories for legislation that are the legislative embodiment of the liberal spirit in all its nobility. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Medicare and Medicaid; Head Start; Model Cities. Government’s hand to help people caught in ‘the tentacles of circumstance.’”

But Johnson’s tenure in the White House was equally dramatic in tragic ways as well. “‘We Shall Overcome’ were not the only words by which it will be remembered. ‘Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?’” was the other side of the coin. No one who experienced those times can possibly forget either of these emblematic statements.

The picture of Lyndon Johnson that emerges from the pages of this book is, on balance, one of greatness — but greatness alloyed with weaknesses and character flaws reminiscent of the tragedies of Sophocles or Euripides. Johnson, who grew up desperately poor, was venal to an extreme. He built a fortune over his decades in the Senate and the White House by breaking numerous laws and exercising the most heavy-handed of business tactics. His political conduct was equally heavy-handed, alternating between fawning respect for people whose support he craved and transparent scorn for others that sometimes took the form of deliberate public humiliation. Although Caro makes clear that he exercised admirable restraint during the months immediately following his swearing-in as President, Johnson typically treated his staff with extraordinary contempt, screaming at high volume, waving his arms, and subjecting them to insulting demands. He was, as Bobby Kennedy regarded him, a very “nasty man.”

The Passage of Power tells the story of Lyndon Johnson from his first explorations of a possible race for President in the mid-1950s until the middle of 1964, which saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act that confirmed his political genius. But the book focuses most tightly on the four days beginning November 22, 1963, when JFK was killed, “and the rest of the transition period — the period, forty-seven days, just short of seven weeks, between the moment . . . when [Kennedy intimate] Ken O’Donnell said ‘He’s gone’ and the State of the Union speech on January 8, 1964″ — a speech that. given its almost universally exuberant reception may well have been one of the greatest (and certainly one of the most consequential) orations in history.

If, a century from now, historians are still practicing their craft, and people are still reading books, The Passage of Power will stand out as a worthy contribution to the understanding of the contradictions in the American character.

The Passage of Power is the fourth of the five projected volumes of Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson. To date, Caro has devoted thirty years of his life to the project, and his wife Ina, his principal researcher, nearly as much. He estimates that the fifth volume will require another two to three years to write.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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May 05, 2012 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Caro's volumes on the years of Lyndon Johnson have brought the enigmatic, misunderstood and nearly forgotten 36th president back into his rightful spot as one of the great leaders of the 20th century.

The scope of this book is much more narrow than the previous volumes, confining itself to LBJ's endless humiliations as John Kennedy's vice president, his sudden ascension to power through Kennedy's death and Johnson's astonishing grasp of control over the next few months.

Caro constantly apologizes...more

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May 14, 2012 Evan Barrett rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read all 3 previous volumes of this series just two years ago, and was avidly awaiting this new installment. I can only imagine the angst with which those who read Master of the Senate in 2002 had been waiting for it.

Caro does it again in terms of his inimitable gift for historical research, narrative, and psychoanalysis, although I'm not sure why it took his customary ten years with this one as it seems to me the amount of boots-on-the-ground research should have been greatly less than with t...more

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May 29, 2013 David Bales rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, 2013

Volume 4 in Caro's lengthy biography of Lyndon Johnson that I originally began, (Vol. 1) in 1982. This one deals with the election of 1960, and the intrigue and travails of LBJ as he attempts to wrest the nomination from John F. Kennedy and fails, and then accepts the nomination for vice president in a gamble, going from the most important Democrat in the country as the greatest Senate majority leader in history to a powerless second-in-command. Miserable as second banana, Johnson is propelled i...more Volume 4 in Caro's lengthy biography of Lyndon Johnson that I originally began, (Vol. 1) in 1982. This one deals with the election of 1960, and the intrigue and travails of LBJ as he attempts to wrest the nomination from John F. Kennedy and fails, and then accepts the nomination for vice president in a gamble, going from the most important Democrat in the country as the greatest Senate majority leader in history to a powerless second-in-command. Miserable as second banana, Johnson is propelled into the top job on November 22, 1963 and walks a tightrope between the "Kennedy men" at the White House, a skeptical press corps and always--his own inner demons. Most of the book deals with what Caro calls the "transition": November 22nd to January 8, 1964, when Johnson announces the War on Poverty and takes over the presidency with his own unique Texan stamp. During this period he successfully negotiated two pieces of Kennedy legislation that were going nowhere: the tax bill which called for a tax cut, and the Civil Rights Bill that had been stalled by Southern Democrats--ultimately getting it passed by July.
Caro is never really sure if Johnson is a hero or a villain. He lauds Johnson's passion for justice, but rightly points out that ambition and reality always were more important. He foreshadows the next volume by revealing that Johnson's worst qualities led to the disaster in Vietnam. Johnson is much like the country he was president of: noble and tawdry, courageous and craven, awful and great.
I found two strange mistakes in the book, common in first day releases but hard to fathom: The disgraced Bobby Baker's last trip to see Johnson at his ranch after he left the presidency could not, as Caro writes, have been in October, 1973, but was in October, 1972. Johnson died in January of 1973; also, a Martin Van Buren quote about the presidency could not have been from 1867, since President Van Buren died in 1862. The book is a bit wordy, and Caro's rather long books have gotten longer, and more wordy, as the volume goes on. There is some concern that Caro will not live to write Volume 5, which will deal with Johnson's election in 1964 and his actual presidency. An anxious fan base awaits the next book... * Reread, April/May, 2013. Listened to the excellent audio presentation of this book again this year. Caro points out in the last chapter how the transition period of 1963-1964 has often been glossed over by historians as "evidence of the efficacy" of the American form of government but Caro shows how Johnson's near genius in getting President Kennedy's tax bill and the civil rights bill out of their respective committees and on the road to passage changed American history for the better. Great profiles of rather forgotten characters in American history who were major players during the era, like Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia and others, and a classic step-by-step, almost exhaustive detailing of the feuds between LBJ and Robert Kennedy that in Caro's words, "Poisoned the Democratic party for most of the 1960s." This is a monumental work, but as I said last year, I fear that a detailed book done in the Caro style on the remaining five years of Johnson's presidency and 9 years of life may be out of reach. I hope Mr. Caro lives past 100.(less)

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Jun 08, 2012 Craig rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best I've ever read. This volume (the 4th in what was originally planned as a three volume work!) covers the years 1958 - 1963. It focuses on Johnson, of course, but it gets into the LBJ-RFK feud better than any other book I've read and goes into great detail on how LBJ contributed to Kennedy's victory in 1960.

More than this, Caro is a talented writer. He had the ability to bring historical characters to life and to set the scene so eloquently that I felt I was actually in the room wi...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Britann rated it 5 of 5 stars

My copy is on its way! I have been waiting years for this volume. Thank you, Robert Caro!

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Jul 01, 2014 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-history, audio

Robert Caro is writing far more than the biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. He is also writing a treatise on power and powerful men. This is volume 4 of the series and concerns the years 1956 to 1964. We follow LBJ as he tries to acheive his goal of being the presidential nominee, as he is humiliated as Vice President, and as he adroitly takes over the presidency upon JFK's assasination. But we also learn how JFK defeated death on numerous occassions and manages to win the 1960 Democratic nominatio...more

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May 24, 2012 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Caro's multi-volume biography of LBJ. I tore through the first three volumes last year, and I got The Passage of Power as soon as it came out. He's a wonderful writer (if easily parodied). The chapter in The Path to Power about Hill Country women making do in a land without electricity was mind-boggling, and Caro is predictably good telling the story of the JFK assassination and the minutes, hours and days immediately afterward, where LBJ assumed command. Caro can switch from extreme clos...more I love Caro's multi-volume biography of LBJ. I tore through the first three volumes last year, and I got The Passage of Power as soon as it came out. He's a wonderful writer (if easily parodied). The chapter in The Path to Power about Hill Country women making do in a land without electricity was mind-boggling, and Caro is predictably good telling the story of the JFK assassination and the minutes, hours and days immediately afterward, where LBJ assumed command. Caro can switch from extreme close-up to vast panoramas; he can examine a particularly important day moment by revealing moment and then cover months at a time; he can take abstruse or obscure bureaucratic maneuvers and make them the stuff of drama. I love Robert Caro.

I don't, however, trust Robert Caro. He's not so much a historian as a myth-maker, and his agenda is less about historical analysis and more about LBJ as the Shakespearean anti-hero that defined postwar American politics, for good or ill. In Means of Ascent, most notoriously, this led him to lionize Coke Stevenson as a sort of cowboy Cincinnatus, the better to paint LBJ as a quasi-demonic figure of the new politics and all that it would wrought. The reader would have to read between the lines to see evidence that Stevenson was an anti-intellectual fundamentalist, that he had profited from ballot-stuffing as much as LBJ, or that LBJ was running as a Truman Democrat while Coke was part of Strom Thurmond's Jim Crow insurgency.

The Passage of Power is less glaring in this regard, but Caro's storytelling agenda still predominates. Can it really be true, for example, that LBJ's mutual feud with Robert Kennedy is worth the hundred-plus pages that Caro devotes to it? Or is it that the mutual hatred of two larger than life men is easier for Caro to write about than, say, the economic impact of the 1964 tax cut that LBJ worked so hard to pass? Caro's portraits of the Kennedy brothers are indelible and fascinating, and it's nice to see an old fashioned liberal who's willing to really stick it to Bobby Kennedy like he deserves. But considering how many major policies were passed under LBJ, it's unfortunate that he spends so much time on minor bits of palace intrigue.

Caro's mythic conception of LBJ also affects his political history. Caro presents the Congress of 1963 as being in the iron grip of the 'conservative coalition', a combination of right-wing Republicans and southern Democrats that dominated the two houses of Congress and used the committee system to stymie liberal legislation. Only LBJ, Caro suggests, was able to use his political genius to break through the logjam. But the evidence suggests that the conservative coalition was less formidable than Caro makes it seem. Conservatives had been unable to prevent JFK and Sam Rayburn from weakening the southern hold on the House Rules Committee. And the best efforts of Goldwater Republicans were unable to keep many Republicans from embracing civil rights. (Minority leader Charles Halleck's support for the Goldwaterite "southern strategy" led Republicans to dump him in favor of the more moderate Gerald Ford.) LBJ certainly deserves credit for seeing the fault lines that existed and exploiting them, but Caro gives the lion's share of the credit to him when larger forces were at work.

Similarly, a lot of attention is paid to LBJ's ability to win over Congressmen and Senators. But historical comparisons reveal that LBJ's record in this regard isn't remarkably different from Barack Obama's. Caro often describes Johnson as the master political deal-maker, but LBJ wasn't so much a master as he was the beneficiary of large majorities and favorable political winds... for a time.

Again, I love these books, and I intend to re-read them. But they are large enough and prestigious enough that they get treated as authoritative, and this they are not. Caro is a fine writer, but if you want sound historical analysis, get a second opinion.(less)

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Aug 21, 2012 Steve Turtell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Robert Caro has done it again. The Power Broker, his first, is one of my favorite books--there are several chapters in that book about Robert Moses I've read over and over again because they have the heft and depth of a small novel, like "One Mile" the chapter on the building of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and the story of Alfred E. Smith, the first Catholic to run for president of the United States.

In Passage of Power, the same novelistic depth is given to the ferocious and mutual hatred of Ly...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Carolinecarver rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished listening to the last of the 27 CDs of Book Four of Robert Caro's, Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power, and I don't know what to do with myself--I am bereft, and I miss LBJ. I miss his brilliant tactical moves as a legislator (How we could use him with this logjammed Congress!)and yes, his malice and vindictiveness, but also his magnanimous gestures. He walked into the segregated "40-Acre Club" in Austin with his African-American secretary (the first of any President to hire a B...more I just finished listening to the last of the 27 CDs of Book Four of Robert Caro's, Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power, and I don't know what to do with myself--I am bereft, and I miss LBJ. I miss his brilliant tactical moves as a legislator (How we could use him with this logjammed Congress!)and yes, his malice and vindictiveness, but also his magnanimous gestures. He walked into the segregated "40-Acre Club" in Austin with his African-American secretary (the first of any President to hire a Black person in his administration) on his arm on New Year's Eve. No one said a word about this and after an hour of chatting with friends, they left. This was the same club that had previously refused to serve a drink to a Black Peace Corps worker. Calling the club later about its policy on intergration, they replied that yes, we are now integrated, "The President integrated us on New Year's Eve." This is one of so many stories that cover the years from 1958-1964. Caro is a prodigious researcher and brilliant biographer, but he is also a master storyteller. I laughed and cried, was outraged and filled with awe for the larger-than-life LBJ. Every person my age remembers where he or she was when Kennedy was shot, but I don't remember the passage of power, the smoothness of the transition during those turbulent horror-filled days, the shooting of the President and then the murder of his assassin, all televised before a transfixed nation. Caro brings it all back with energy and insight and gives the reader an appreciation of the man that brought us through that time of suspicion and grief and then embarked on one of the most ambitious programs of our time, civil rights for all Americans and a war on poverty designed to transform us because, as Johnson said when he was told he couldn't do it, "Well, what the hell is the presidency for?" As a Texan, I've always been proud of Lyndon and Lady Byrd Johnson, but this book gave me an understanding of the man, his achievements and failures, in a way I never had before. If I could give it more than five stars, I would! It is a masterpiece.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Aaron Arnold rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, history, politics, read-in-2012

At this point in the series, you'll have made up your mind on Lyndon B. Johnson's character whether you wanted to or not. Caro has been so determined to show every wart, flaw, and imperfection he has that Robert Kennedy's verdict of "formidable but flawed, powerful but dangerous" is the default prism you view his every action through. This volume concentrates on both the lowest period of LBJ's adult life - the three long, painful years as John F Kennedy's ignored and ridiculed Vice President - a...more At this point in the series, you'll have made up your mind on Lyndon B. Johnson's character whether you wanted to or not. Caro has been so determined to show every wart, flaw, and imperfection he has that Robert Kennedy's verdict of "formidable but flawed, powerful but dangerous" is the default prism you view his every action through. This volume concentrates on both the lowest period of LBJ's adult life - the three long, painful years as John F Kennedy's ignored and ridiculed Vice President - and its highest, as he led the nation through the difficult first seven weeks after Kennedy's assassination and began to implement and extend his stalled bills in Congress. That "led the nation" phrase is key, as one of the eye-opening statistics that Caro reveals is that in the three days after Dallas, a solid majority of the entire nation was watching details of the murder on television, giving Johnson a position as national steward that no President had ever had before, and as events would make clear, would never have again. It's weird to look back on those days where the President was a sort of father figure to the country; that LBJ was one of the Presidents most responsible for that changing makes it all the more jarring. As far as continuity with the previous volumes goes, Caro continues to tell the story of the country in these years in large part through Johnson's character and personal qualities. I've always had philosophical issues with biographies and histories that lean too much toward the Thomas Carlyle-style "great man" approach, but Caro's writing style and ability to convey the high drama of the period still feels right, because even the small details of his relationships with the other famous figures herein have had lasting significance. He's toned down the mini-biographies, spending just a few pages on better-documented people like JFK and RFK, and even relative unknowns like Harry F Byrd are quickly summed up instead being given the monumental digressions on Richard Russell and Coke Stevenson in earlier volumes. Part of the reason is that we're now reaching the point where this history is relatively well-known to everyone and there's simply too much epic, Shakespearean conflict to waste time: the bitter competition between JFK and LBJ for the 1960 Presidential nomination, as LBJ's lust for the goal he had sought his entire life fought with his desperate need to never be seen as a loser; the even more bitter rivalry between him and RFK, so much his opposite in erudition and temperament yet so much his twin in determination and idealism; how unbelievably close an investigation into scandals around one of his protégés came to snaring himself before coming to a halt when he ascended to the Presidency; and how he was able to resurrect JFK's moribund legislative agenda with his long-dormant powers of persuasion; and then his 1964 State of the Union address with the first stirrings of the Great Society, the most visionary domestic agenda since FDR, and of the whole rest of the 20th century. The later parts where LBJ manages to get the tax bill and the civil rights bill moving along are the parts that I found most interesting, and that will probably be most relevant to people reading these books for lessons to apply today. The politics are fascinating; the debate over whether LBJ could get the budget under $100 billion to appease Senator Byrd and get him to stop blocking other bills would be interesting enough without curious political inversion whereby JFK's proposed tax cut was actually the liberal position, in an era where conservatives actually cared about the deficit. Additionally, since that was back in an era where parties weren't ideologically unified, Johnson's ability to craft coalitions by drawing on personal relationships is sure to bring back a lot of nostalgia for the kind of person who values bipartisanship in and of itself. Johnson himself of course did more than any other President to bring that to an end, a story which will have to be told in the next volume. As in the other volumes, this book is filled to bursting with layers of detail, insight, data, quotes, analysis, and scholarship. Also as in other volumes, there are the trademark emotional tenors that Caro imbues each scene with, as he tries to tell you not only what happened, but what it meant, and why it had to be viewed from that angle or heard in that pitch. Caro has been justly criticized for his ambivalent relationship to his subject and how that leaves the reader unsatisfied at times, but now that LBJ is finally in the position he's always dreamed of and is free to change the world for good or for ill, Caro's writing has returned to that peak of elegance and illumination that makes his books so addictive. The Passage of Power isn't quite the book that Master of the Senate was (I mean that literally: it's 500 pages shorter), but it's still a worthy part of the greatest biographical study of our times.(less)

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Sep 08, 2012 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Whew! I just finished this book, the fourth volume of Caro's unbeleiveable biography of Lyndon Johnson. This one goes from the the runup to the 1960 Presdientail election campaign through the assasination of JFK and then up through LBJ's first year as President. Caro, who writes a volume every 10 years, promises that the fifth will be the last -which means it will cover passage of Medicare(hard to believe a Congress coudl do that), the Vietnam War, and the 1968 Presidential campaign (Johnson res...more Whew! I just finished this book, the fourth volume of Caro's unbeleiveable biography of Lyndon Johnson. This one goes from the the runup to the 1960 Presdientail election campaign through the assasination of JFK and then up through LBJ's first year as President. Caro, who writes a volume every 10 years, promises that the fifth will be the last -which means it will cover passage of Medicare(hard to believe a Congress coudl do that), the Vietnam War, and the 1968 Presidential campaign (Johnson resigning, Bobbie Kennedy getting assasinated, etc). I cannot wait.

If you have not read Caro, its a unique experience - hsi reaserch (all done by he and his wife) is unbeleivably meticulous and all-encompassing, his writing is beautiful, and he gets inside tghe pores of his subjects and comes out with teh good, the bad and teh ugly. He also picks perfect subjects for his talents - LBJ was both a monster, a master politician, a wonderful rags to riches story, a vicious cruel bully and (especially comparing it to recent hsitory, and after reading Caro) an amazingly successful President. ( With onlly one fatal falw- Vietnam- but that is in the next volume).

The heart of this book was his relationship with the Kenndeys. As many books as I have read about those years, and having lived through them in college and law school plus my personal invovlement as a Bobby Kennedy staffer in the '68 campaign, I have never understood or felt more acutely the almost Shakespearean personal conflicts at play - the Kennedy's patrician scorn for LBJ (or "Rufus Cornpone" as they used to call him), the story of how Bobby Kennedy tried to undo LBJ's nomination as VP literally minutes before it was announced, hwo the hatred between LBJ and RFK played itself after JFK's assasination, and how their personal vendetta had a large part in shaping national politics until Sirhan Sirhan put a stop to it. Actually, maybe more Greek than Shakesperaean. (Having read teh book, my wife is now convinced that LBJ was behind both assasinations-if it was a play or movie, that would defeintely be the plot turn that made dramatic sense)

The book got only four stars, becaseu there are repititious parts (coudl ahve used another edit) and becaause some of the legsiatlive battles makes for tedious reading (but not the way LBJ masterminded teh passage of the civi8l rights bill -the first time a Senatorial filibuster was broken - it shoud be required reading for Obama if he has a second term). But I am fired up and ready to go for Volume 5. And if you wnat to read the greatest poltical biography ever written, read Caros' first book - The Power Broker - about Robert Moses,although maybe you have to be a New Yorker to really apprcicate it.(less)

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May 24, 2013 Ed Smiley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: confound-their-politics-frustrate

This is an amazing book.

The description of the transfer of power in Dallas from LBJ's perspective, crushed by a secret service agent who placed his body over him, slamming around as the car spun braked, swerved, overhearing snippets of secret service walkie-talkies ("he's been hit") rushed through the hospital by armed guards. Stunning.

It is the story of a humiliated LBJ, first reduced to a Vice-Presidential sidekick, disrespected by the Kennedy team, haunted by a fear of failure.

It is the triu...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Mike Carey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love this book and the entire series. I sure hope that Caro can hang on to finish his work with the next book ( or two ) on his time in the presidency. I loved his take on LBJ's ability to push through Civil Rights legislation and the tax reduction bill that had stalled with the Kennedy Administration. Caro is masterful in explaining the complexities that LBJ had to navigate: retaining JFK's staff, assuring the nation, honoring JFK while at the same time taking the reins of power and not being a...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Parker F rated it 4 of 5 stars

While I think that Robert Caro is among the finest writers and researchers of our time, I am unable to give this five stars and am tempted to give it fewer than 4 because of its needless repetitiveness. I remember reading that the original manuscript of THE POWER BROKER was something like 40% longer than the final edition and regretting that I would never read the unedited version. With THE PASSAGE OF POWER, I can see how removing 40% of Caro's text would not be a particularly daunting task. The...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Nathaniel rated it 1 of 5 stars

ALL DASHBOARD, NO ENGINE. A PROFOUNDLY DUMBED DOWN BOOK ABOUT A TIME THAT IS THE MOST CRITICAL FOR UNDERSTANDING OUR CURENT HISTORICAL MOMENT. PURE CORPORATE HISTORY.

It seems as if Caro had one overriding goal: to avoid comparing JFK with LBJ on policies, so the myth of policy continuity between these two presidents-- a myth propagated by the billionaire media which is married to the lone nut bs for its own credibility as Communications professor Barbie Zelizer shows brilliantly Covering the Bod...more

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About Robert A. Caro

He's the author of The Power Broker (1974), for which he won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize. It's a biography of Robert Moses, an urban planner and leading builder of New York City. President Obama said that he read the biography when he was 22 years old and that the book "mesmerized" him. Obama said, "I'm sure it helped to shape how I think about politics."
Caro has also written four biographies on Lyndo...more

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Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #3)

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1)

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #2)

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Robert A. Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson Set: The Path to Power; Means of Ascent; Master of the Senate; The Passage of Power

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“We have talked long enough ... about civil rights,' Lyndon Johnson had said. 'It is time ... to write it in the books of law' - to embody justice and equality in legislation.” — 7 likes

“President Kennedy’s eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson’s hammer blows are designed to make men act.” — 4 likes

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